SST (Other exams) study plan
SST · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Safety and Security Technology Fundamentals
Define each core safety and security technology concept (detection, deterrence, delay, response, and the layered-defense model) in your own words and map every term to a real device or procedure you have seen.
Distinguish intrusion detection sensing families (passive infrared, dual-technology, microwave, beam, glass-break, vibration) by what physical phenomenon each measures and name one environment where each fails.
Explain how alarm transmission paths (dedicated line, IP, cellular, radio) differ in survivability and latency, and rank them for a site with a single phone line.
Trace the signal chain from sensor to control panel to central station and identify where supervision, line security, and encryption are applied.
Your checkpoint
A one-page annotated glossary of at least 25 domain-1 terms, each with a plain-language definition and one applied example.
Safety and Security Technology Fundamentals & Physical Security Systems and Access Control
Compare video surveillance architectures (analog, IP, hybrid) on resolution, bandwidth, storage, and failure modes, and justify a choice for a 40-camera site.
Calculate storage requirements for a given camera count, resolution, frame rate, compression, and retention period, and show your arithmetic.
Describe how access control decisions flow from credential read to door strike, including the role of the controller, reader, request-to-exit, and fail-safe versus fail-secure hardware.
Explain credential technologies (proximity, smart card, biometric, mobile) and state one security weakness of each.
Your checkpoint
A worked storage and bandwidth calculation for a 40-camera, 30-day-retention design, plus a table of four credential types with strengths and weaknesses.
Physical Security Systems and Access Control
Design a layered perimeter for a mid-size warehouse: fence, lighting, detection, video, and access points, and state the performance objective each layer serves.
Apply anti-passback, two-person rule, and escort logic to three scenarios and predict the exact door behavior in each.
Identify life-safety conflicts in access control (egress, delayed egress, fail-safe on fire alarm) and state the governing principle for resolving each.
Evaluate biometric reader placement and environmental factors that degrade enrollment or matching.
Your checkpoint
A one-page access control and perimeter design brief for a warehouse, covering door hardware modes, anti-passback rules, and egress handling.
Security Operations and Incident Response
Build an incident classification scheme (severity levels with escalation triggers) and apply it to five written scenarios.
Draft the first 30 minutes of a response playbook for an alarm activation, including verification, dispatch, and evidence preservation steps.
Explain how a security operations center triages alarms and what metrics (false alarm rate, response time, disposition) reveal about performance.
Describe chain-of-custody handling for video and access-log evidence from the moment of seizure to handoff.
Your checkpoint
A severity matrix plus a 30-minute alarm-response playbook, each validated against five practice scenarios.
Risk Assessment and Loss Prevention
Perform a qualitative risk assessment on a fictional facility using asset identification, threat likelihood, vulnerability, and consequence.
Distinguish risk treatment options (avoid, reduce, transfer, accept) and select one for each of five identified risks with justification.
Estimate loss exposure for a theft or intrusion scenario using asset value, probability, and annualized loss expectancy arithmetic.
Identify crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) principles and apply two of them to a parking-area layout.
Your checkpoint
A completed risk register for a fictional facility with at least eight risks, each scored and assigned a treatment option.
Security Technology Integration and Maintenance
Describe how subsystems (access control, video, intrusion, fire) integrate through protocols and APIs, and name two integration failure points.
Build a preventive maintenance schedule for cameras, readers, panels, and backup power, specifying interval and verification method.
Explain how to test backup power, alarm communication paths, and system health monitoring, and interpret a failed test result.
Outline a commissioning and acceptance-test process for a newly installed system, including documentation handover.
Your checkpoint
A 12-month preventive maintenance schedule with test methods, plus a commissioning checklist of at least 15 acceptance items.
Regulatory Compliance, Ethics, and Professional Practice
Summarize the compliance obligations most relevant to security technology work: privacy and data protection for video and biometrics, retention limits, and notice requirements.
Apply an ethical decision framework to three dilemmas (covert monitoring, data sharing with law enforcement, biometric consent) and defend each choice.
Distinguish the roles of standards-setting bodies, testing laboratories, and codes, and explain how a listed product differs from a compliant installation.
Identify professional practice expectations: documentation, competence boundaries, conflicts of interest, and escalation.
Your checkpoint
A two-page compliance and ethics position paper covering privacy, biometric consent, and evidence handling, with a cited principle for each stance.
Safety and Security Technology Fundamentals & Physical Security Systems and Access Control & Security Operations and Incident Response & Risk Assessment and Loss Prevention & Security Technology Integration and Maintenance & Regulatory Compliance, Ethics, and Professional Practice
Revisit your weakest two domains using missed practice questions and rewrite the underlying concept for each miss.
Complete a timed full-length practice exam under test conditions and record a per-domain score breakdown.
Build a one-page formula and concept sheet covering storage math, loss expectancy, and access control logic, and recite it from memory.
Identify your three most persistent error patterns and write a corrective rule for each.
Your checkpoint
A timed full-length practice exam score report with per-domain breakdown, error-pattern list, and corrective rules.
Milestones
Week 2: Explain the full sensor-to-central-station signal chain and complete a storage calculation without notes, scoring at least 80% on a self-made 20-question domain-1 quiz.
Week 4: Correctly classify and respond to all five practice scenarios, and state the door behavior for anti-passback and fail-safe/fail-secure cases without reference.
Week 6: Produce a risk register and maintenance schedule that a peer can follow without asking clarifying questions, and pass a 25-question mixed quiz at 75% or higher.
Week 8: Score at least 80% on the timed full-length practice exam with no domain below 70%, and have a written corrective rule for each recurring error.